Told You So
by Tuna Salad Sonnet
Summary: Ty Lee and Zuko have a discussion on the beach in the middle of the night about ch'i, bending, and secrets. -Tyko friendship oneshot. Spoilers for the Firebending Masters!-


**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Avatar: The Last Airbender _or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.

**_Ships:_** (Friendship) Zuko/Ty Lee. (Romance) Tiny Ty Lee/Sokka hint if you squint.  
**_Warnings:_** Spoilers for Episode 53 - The Firebending Masters.

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Told You So

"I'm sorry for what I said."

She turned and cocked her head at him. "What you said when?"

"At the campfire. I'm sorry I called you a circus freak."

She leaned forward, touching her cheek to her folded knees and smiling at him. "But I _am_ a circus freak, Zuko."

"But-"

"I told you: I feel better now. If you hadn't ticked me off in the first place, I would've never let everything out. Thanks."

He smiled softly, but continued to stare at the sea.

"But you... you still have a lot in you."

"Huh?" he turned toward the girl, who now observed his face thoughtfully.

"You still have a lot of stuff bottled up in you. One day, it's gonna mess up your bending."

He shook his head slightly, not believing what he was hearing. "What?"

"That's why being _bendy_ is better than being a bender."

Now he was just confused. "_What?_"

She grinned and unfolded her legs, lying stomach-down on the sandy beach. He watched as she bent her legs up over her head and waved her feet towards the moon's reflection on the water. "You see, when you're a bender, you have to worry about how you're ch'i will affect your bending. But when you're _bendy_ it's your bending that affects your ch'i."

"So..." Zuko narrowed his eyes at her. "You're saying that one day all the so-called 'stuff'," he traced the word with air quotes, "inside me will mess up by bending?"

"Exactly." She looked at him expectantly. "You're going to have to get rid of all that baggage at some point."

He snorted. "Whatever."

"I'm telling you," she said knowledgeably. She rested her chin on her palms and smiled serenely out into the ocean. "You're going to need to feed your fire with something other than anger and confusion."

"Stop acting like you know me," he said. He watched her carefully out of the corner of his good eye. The smile disappeared from her face and her legs crashed back down into the sand.

"I _do_ know you," she said quietly. He had a feeling he wasn't supposed to hear.

"Why do you keep saying that?" he asked, crawling forward on his hands and knees and peering down at her.

"It's nothing," she said.

He smirked as a thought passed his mind. "It'll mess up your aura," he teased.

A smile pulled at her lips. "It's a secret," she said.

"Do secrets mess up auras?" he wondered aloud, partially to himself.

"No. In fact, they make auras even healthier," Ty Lee replied.

Zuko dropped to his stomach beside her, watching the waves come just short of touching their folded arms. "Okay, now you're just lying."

"Yup," she turned and smiled at him. "But shouldn't you be more worried about your bending than _my_ secrets, Princey?"

"Maybe," he replied, thoughtful. "It's just... you're not a very secretive person, Ty Lee."

"Every one in the Fire Nation has secrets, Zuko. Especially people who own summer homes on Ember Island," she said.

The Fire Prince stared out at the sea as the utter truth of this comment washed over him. A cool wind blew across the water and tossed their dark hair briefly before settling again.

"So if all this 'stuff' inside me does end up messing up my bending, what will I have to do to fix it?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. Find new motivation, I guess. And you mean 'when' it messes you up, not 'if'."

Zuko growled, ash and sparks scattering out onto the sand and sizzling when the waves came in. "Why the hell are you so sure of that?"

"Because I _know_ you."

Zuko sighed, letting his forehead thud to the sand. "You are incredibly frustrating sometimes."

"Uh huh!" Ty Lee agreed cheerily, waving her legs in the air. "That's what's great about being able to see auras," she said, grabbing his hair and yanking his head back up so he could see her friendly smile. "It makes people unbelievably predictable."

--

It felt like Zuko hadn't seen the constantly pink-clad circus performer in years instead of just a few short weeks. Teo had spotted her smoke signal one day out flying. Appa and Aang picked up the injured girl and took her back to the temple, where she explained that Azula was not the kind of person you want to anger.

Ty Lee held the bowl of soup Katara had given her in shivering hands as Zuko rubbed one of her shoulders, attempting to warm her up. (Sokka kept giving him this odd glare for some reason.) "So let me get this straight," she was saying as she listened to the Avatar's recount of their journey. "You had to go find the origin of firebending?"

"Yeah," Aang nodded. "Zuko just stopped bending one day."

The girl turned to him and grinned. "I told you I told you I told you so!" she said.

Zuko narrowed his eyes and rubbed her shoulder so hard that small sparks flew from underneath his palms and scattered through the air.

"Youch! Zuko!" Ty Lee glared and poked him swiftly in a point behind his ear. The prince's head immediately flopped onto his shoulder. This was followed by him pulling Ty Lee's braid, which you simply _do not do_ because then she dumps a bowl of hot soup on your head and then-

The two quarrelling Fire Nation teenagers fell off their ruined stone bench and started wrestling (although this was difficult for Zuko as his limbs started to freeze and wobble) as the rest of the crew watched blankly.

"Well then," Sokka announced to the rest, gesturing to the two, "there you have our new addition."

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**AN.** I wanted to write a friend on LiveJournal a birthday drabble. She said a Ty Lee/Zuko drabble, "Preferably with jokes about bending vs. being bendy. :D Oh, the lulz." And so, this was born.

Sort-of, not-really a sequel to "I Know You", which explains why Ty Lee is so sad and so determined to let Zuko know what she meant.

In my mind, Ty Lee will always have a place in the Gaang. :(


End file.
